The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has called in police after receiving
death threats in a handwritten letter.

"It's flattering somebody wants to kill me but also scary," said Hawkins. The band's manager, Sue Whitehouse, also received a copy of the letter.

A spokesman for The Darkness said: "A band of this stature are bound to receive letters of this nature."

Security has been stepped up around the band. Police said no arrests had been made but "inquiries are continuing".

The band's spokesman said they would not be making any further comment "due to the distress it has caused
to family and friends."

Success

Hawkins told the Sun newspaper on Wednesday: "I don't know who it is but we've got the police involved and CID are
checking the letter with fingerprints and all that stuff."

The lead singer received the hate mail just before the band scooped three awards at the Brits last week.

The Darkness took best British album, best British group and best British rock act at the event in London.

Their fourth single from debut album Permission to Land is a power ballad called Love Is Only A Feeling and will be released on 22 March.

The rock outfit have just finished a tour of Europe before they head to the United States for more live dates.

"The Darkness are becoming a household name in the US - they've been concentrating so far on the British market but they get fantastic press over there in the US and there's a lot of interest," Emmanuel Legrand, London bureau chief of US music industry magazine Billboard, told BBC News Online last week.